Friday, February 20, 2009

Useful to remember. The Academy Awards were started by the motion picture industry in the U.S. itself because of the perception that Hollywood films were just sensationalistic garbage without any redeeming artistic or social value. So, a fictional "Academy" made up of folks in the industry was created with awards given out to films thought to excel in some category. At its heart it's a public relations game by the industry, and still serves the function of legitimating crap that Hollywood has produced. This is in opposition to Europe, where from the start films were seen as legitimate artistic vehicles.

Have you ever wondered just what the "Academy" is? You can't take classes there, there are no lectures, no professors, no students. Instead, it's a cheap rip off in name of things like the Academies existing under the umbrella of the Insitut de France, which are the highest and most prestigious bodies of learned people in all of France.

*on edit: the Academy, according to Wiki, gives out some trivial scholarships every year, but beyond that, a film archive, and a library, it's activity is nil.

Not exactly the "Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres" in France.